Big J

Thanks for posting - on seeing the photos, I thought that I recognised it from driving past it in Balfron.

They are very narrow, which might limit their value if there is any shake, but I generally sell ash for around £28-31 a cubic foot.

I had a little too much red meat over the weekend, and things weren't too comfortable the next time the crafting of a stool was required.

ONE TIME OFFER: With one confirmed order now (Marcus/Difflock for an LM15), I need to fill the rest of the container and will sell the remainder of the LM1s at cost, which is about £4100 plus VAT and delivery. There will be space for approximately 3 of these and this offer cannot be repeated. I would like to get these mills out onto the market, and strongly believe that they will sell themselves. The only stipulation that I would make is that if you want to take me up on this offer that you occasionally show someone around the mill if there is someone in your area that is interested. Here is a link to the homepage of Logmaster and the LM1: LM1 Personal Sawmill | Log Master Portable Saw Mill Inc Jonathan

They do come very well recommended from a number of sources. The Logmaster sawmill I'm getting is coming with the Dakin Flathers (Ripper 37) blades.

Stephen, I must insist that this becomes your signature!!

I had a nice small load of straight yew butts that I sold quite a bit of to a bowyer - the rest went for whisky boxes!

I've got a bit of timber sat at a mill in Northamptonshire and could uplift it to go with it - I'm building up 25 tonnes to bring up come winter. Any chance of some pictures?

All thinnings, or any interesting saw logs?

Yew is an easy species to dry - quick and predicable. It's a softwood after all. If they are long, clean and good diameter, my vote goes for not using them for flooring and selling them for long bow blanks. Lots of money in that!

Hi Nick, I could certainly do it, and I should be well up to speed with the new sawmill by then (my new one arrives in Grangemouth on the 1st of September). I just need to sort out the transport options and I can get back to you. Do you have any idea what kind of volume of timber there is to cut? Jonathan

Bugger that - I'll stick to forestry work where the worst I can do is hit a tree I want to keep! Good work Tom!

12x6 dropside car trailer plant etc | South Gyle | Gumtree Dodgy advert, far too cheap, anyone lost an Ifor Williams flatbed trailer?

Well it's not commercial in terms of power output and log handling. I'd want 40hp and full hydraulics!

No apology required! I love a good discussion! I completely agree that there are advantages to each method of milling. Chainsawmilling can produce from beautiful (and very flat) boards - the pippy yew that I milled yesterday had almost no saw marks on the sawn surface, and as you say, would have only required a sand to finish it. I would be keen to see a commercial chainsaw mill built. Something with a reasonable amount of horsepower capable of milling some very wide butts. One of my issues with longer bars (anything over about 50 inches really) is that it is very hard to stop the bar sagging and deflecting. There needs to be a bar tensioning system to hold it straight, something that the Alaskan Mill is unable to do. The LM2 is going to be running a 2 inch band, and I think that it should alleviate many of the deflection issues that can occur. Most issues arise from imperfect blade alignment, but it is certainly accentuated with a narrow band. Finally, it is the sawdust that is the main issue. I run a very narrow keft sawmill and I still have mountains of the stuff at the yard!

Chainsaw milling isn't really a sustainable option for anyone wanting to do much general milling. There are some great applications for a chainsaw mill (like today, where I chainsaw milled a lovely pippy yew tree that was in a back garden - would have ended up as firewood otherwise) but the level of wastage (10mm kerf, rather than 2mm) is awful. I know a couple of people with the M8s predecessor and they weren't impressed. Very high vibration and extremely limited in terms of the size you can mill. A lot of money for not much. With the bandmill, you will cut far more. A chainsaw has at most 8.8hp removing a 10mm kerf. The lowest power LM1 has 14hp, removing 2mm kerf. That should theoretically mean that the band mill will cut 8 times faster, but in practice that isn't the case due to the band wandering if you go too fast. Either way, it's much quicker, and you have a much smaller pile of saw dust to clear up at the end of the day. The LM1 runs a 1.25 inch band btw.

Used the Lumbermate LM2000 and didn't like it. Hard, physical work, low production rate and bands kept snapping. Perhaps you should go the whole hog and get the LM2 if you want something sexy! Hydraulics are fabulous too.

I think that the difficulty with the trailed version is that you won't get many into the container. I can't see you getting more than 4 into a 40ft container. At a rough guess, it's going to cost about £6700 for the trailed LM1 with a 14hp Kohler engine. Bear in mind, it weighs about 1130kg, which is a good chunk more solid than the competitor mills.

Bumping this thread to see if there is any interest? My LM2 will leave the States this week, sailing it's way over here. The company has been a pleasure to deal with and I'm extremely excited about the new mill arriving. I'd urge people to look at the figures and compare the LM1 to it's competitors. I think it's a heavier built mill for less money, leaving the likes of Woodmizer, Timberking, Oscar and Lumbermate behind on paper at the very least. As I said earlier in the thread, I need 5 orders, ideally 10 (very little price difference between a 20 and 40ft container - saving passed on to customer). I'm not in it to make much money - I genuinely feel that there needs to be more competition in the UK sawmill market to drive up quality/service and drive down cost. Jonathan

It's a very long way, but Steve at Helmdon Sawmills in Northamptonshire is always in need of poplar. He uses around 450 tonne year so it would be worth giving him a call on 01295 760305.

It's a very nifty piece of kit, but I think that the applications in the UK are limited. Dimensioned, kilned softwood will only every retail at £300-600 a cubic metre. Through and through or quarter sawn hardwoods retail at £1000-1950 a cubic metre. Production rates are fairly similar, so why cut something that is only worth a third? In addition to that, the kerf is 3 times that of a band mill, so in a day of cutting 40mm stock (say 200mm wide, for the sake of argument), you'd lose an extra 0.38 cubic metres in sawdust versus a band mill (assuming you cut 3 cubic metres). If it's low grade wood, it's not that much of an issue from a cost point of view, but disposing of the sawdust is a real pain!

The official quoted figure is a combined 28mpg, so that might be a little hopeful for most around town. I don't have a landie, but would expect 18-22mpg around town looking at the figures.

Absolutely! It's a nice feeling to know you've all the firewood you need to see you through a long and cold winter. No need to worry about oil deliveries, rising oil or gas prices or anything else.

Very true. I suppose that depending on your marketing and attention to final detail, the sky is almost the limit! Here are a couple of pictures of the finished store, filled with 21 cubic metres of firewood and with a nice gate on it.

You are quite possibly correct, but certainly up here (and Cumbria) good quality beam oak is fairly expensive and hard to come by!